Andruss Library Special Collections

 

Radical Political Newsletters


     From the Great Depression to the early stages of the Cold War, small groups of discontented Americans fumed about the current political system.  Outside of the mainstream of American politics, away from the worn paths of familiar parties, these groups struggled to present a picture of what a better United States would look like.  For some, like Raymond Healey of the American Bulletin in the early 1930s, this vision entailed a racially pure nation, organized under a Nazi regime.  Others lauded the "worker's paradise," the Soviet Union, and sought the establishment of a socialist America.  Counterattack, however, railed against this left-wing threat, boldly promoting awareness of the communistic threat and demanding strict measures needed to defend the American way.  Libertarian socialists denounced all, declaring the need for a truly socialist "third camp," opposed to the perceived imperialism of both the United States and the Soviet Union. 

     Obviously, a quick look reveals that extreme political groups were anything but uniform in their ideology.  From the Negro Labor News Service to the Socialist Youth Review, widely differing critiques of the American political and economic structure elucidated the underlying currents of discontent, even during the years of American prosperity.  Their usefulness in understanding the history of America is important, offering a defiantly negative evaluation of the capitalistic and democratic majority. 

     Any marks on the newsletters are those of the original owners of the documents.  

    

American Nazi 
        American Bulletin (July 16, 1935 - July 14, 1936)
Anti-Communist
      Counterattack (December 19, 1947 - April 1, 1949;
May 16, 1958)
      The Network (May 1944 - November 1945)
Communist
      Bulletin of the Marxist Policy Committee 
Libertarian Socialists
     Socialist Monthly (August 1951 - September 1952)
Socialist
     Left Wing Caucus of the Young Socialist League
(April 1957)
     Negro Labor News Service (November 20, 1929 - October 31, 1931)

 

 

Trotskyist
     Socialist Youth Review
     

 

 


Created in 2005 by Brent Will, Bloomsburg University Archives Intern

 

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Updated 3/8/07